Alvah’s Books
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Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s {Really} Making America Fat
By Hank Cardello with Doug Carr Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers272 pages$25.99In 1995, Hank Cardello had a serious health scare and later an epiphany. His doctorsthought he had leukemia. After several tests, it turned out he was suffering from chronicfatigue syndrome, and Cardello learned that he could no longer eat the foods he desiredor burn the candle at both ends. What he had to do was change his lifestyle. Easy enough, but there was one little catch–Hank Cardello was a marketer to some of the largest foodand beverage corporations in the world. He realized after his health problems that hisnutritional needs had to change and, in good faith, he could no longer advocate productsand practices that would negatively affect consumers’ health. With that new mindset, hedecided to “to do my part to reenvision how the food industry dealt with health.”In his new book
Stuffed
, Cardello explores how food companies have spent the last 50years focused on the bottom line and profits and ignoring healthier options while pushingconsumers to growing portions and junk food.Cardello doesn’t really offer anything new, but as a former marketer, he does providesome interesting tidbits including the “arc of activity,” which represents the critical sixinches above and below five foot six–the average female height–of supermarket shelvingand one of the most coveted spots for any product. Products geared for men are shelvedhigher (at about five feet eight inches) because they are taller; for women lower at fivefeet even.Cardello also examines the restaurant business and “the people behind the menus” andexplains how restaurants practice the science of Menu Engineering “a design strategy thatincreases overall sales and profits by promoting your low-cost and high-priced menuitems.” Later in the chapter, he discusses the how government has played a role bymandating that restaurants list the caloric content of the foods served.
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